


What Remains?

by WordObsessed



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 22:40:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21926665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WordObsessed/pseuds/WordObsessed
Summary: Carlos remembers how he came to Night Vale
Relationships: Carlos/Cecil, Carlos/Cecil Palmer
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28





	What Remains?

I receive a text at one-twenty seven a.m. It's from one of my fellow scientists. It reads, simply, "Complications with the tests at the library. Come quickly."

I glance at Cecil, who lays beside me on the bed. His eyes are closed, his face buried in the pillow. His purple tattoos glow faintly, pulsing with the rhythm of his heartbeat, and I am confident he is asleep.

I slide out of bed as quietly as I can, and change clothes, sliding on the familiar labcoat. I slip on shoes, and am about to leave our bedroom. But then I grab a marker and move to scribble a note on the whiteboard beside the door telling Cecil that I had to leave to help with an experiment, but I would probably be back for breakfast. I start to write that I'm going to the library, but pause mid-sentence.

I worry that he'll worry about me. The library is dangerous, teeming with books and librarians. It's not the safest place in Night Vale. He doesn't have to worry. I'm a scientist, I can handle myself. But I know he'll worry anyways.

I glance out and see the glittering desert sky, full of stars. I finish writing the sentence. Night Vale doesn't like secrets, especially things that are purposefully withheld.

I remember for the millionth time how I came to Night Vale. No, it's more than the millionth. I calculated it a few months ago, the amount of times I had thought about it, averaging out numbers and multiplying it by days and days. It was just shy of a million then, it was sure to be well over that now.

I hadn't remembered for a while, just knowing I had woken up in a van full of scientists and scientific equipment, on our way to mysterious Night Vale. I had lived in blissful ignorance. But then, one day, I had remembered.

I had a sister. Her name was Bella. I had loved Bella just as much as I love Cecil, with a heart so full I feel as if I'll overfill with it all.

And then she was taken away from me. The sea had eaten my Bella and returned only her body. The ocean had stolen the soul of, at the time, my only love.

There are many scientific reactions to grief. I followed one maddening path, slow longing that ate at me day after day, month after month, year after year.

Eight of those years later, I was laying in my tiny apartment, thinking of nothing but Bella. My experiments stood cluttered against a wall, and I stared at them mournfully. None of my knowledge, none of this science ever saved her. It just distracted me, letting me forget for blissful snatches of time my loneliness.

I downed my entire bottle of prescription-strength migraine pills that night, with no intention of waking up.

But I did. In a van of scientists, en route to my new home.

Night Vale didn't like when I kept this new knowledge secret, especially from Cecil.

The truth was told.

It hurt, but I healed.

Now, Cecil is my everything, he is all I have. Cecil, and science.

I keep them both close to me, and promise never to leave them again.

I am happier here than I ever was Elsewhere. I think everyone is.

But through all of this, I have come to a conclusion; no one in Night Vale is alive, but we are all living.

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is @enbyamy if you want to give some comments there or send some asks. I apologize for breaking your heart


End file.
